Michael Gove is right to ditch the discredited GCSE brand

I was disappointed to hear that the replacement for the GCSE exam will not be called a Gove-level. While not as catchy a phrase as Boris bikes, the Government’s most successful minister deserves to have his name attached to a policy. As anyone who remembers the Education Secretary’s appearances on Moral Maze will attest, the name “Gove” conjures up rigour, learning, and a baffling diverse vocabulary.

Anyway, it’s clear that the old name had to go. The GCSE brand has become an embarrassment. To many employers the exams mean one thing: grade inflation. Every summer another young boy or girl would rack up more A*s than they had years on their passport. But the qualifications themselves were almost meaningless. I remember going on holiday in France after scoring fantastically well in GCSE French and struggling to ask for the bill.

The name was never very impressive either. The waffly assonance of the letters, the blandness of the acronym – is there any qualification less inspiring than a general certificate? By contrast, an English Baccalaureate has the twin advantage of being polysyllabic and patriotic. So perhaps it does bear Gove's signature after all.